Emerging Artists: Apply Now!

The Emerging Artist deadline is quickly approaching. September 30. 2014

NCECA believes that those creating work offering new/exciting/thoughtful perspectives on the ceramic medium, expanding upon genres of creative production and inquiry are qualified as candidates for its Emerging Artist awards. An Emerging Artist may be at the early stages of receiving recognition for his/her work but is currently underrepresented through exhibitions or publications that might otherwise bring the work to wide attention. The intent of the award is to recognize, cultivate and amplify vital, new voices of creative endeavor in ceramics. The award enables these artists to reach broader national and international audiences and impact discourse in the field.” Because the concept of emergence in the arts does not invariably correlate with a specific age, or other quantifiable terms, NCECA requires applicants to briefly describe why they perceive themselves to be at an emergent point in their careers and how they anticipate the award will impact the trajectory of their endeavors. The review committee, at their discretion, may eliminate candidates that are considered to be beyond “emerging.” Applicants are also required to provide letters of support from two figures in the field who are familiar with their work and drive to create. Letters should provide the selection committee with a sense of confirmation of the candidates’ seriousness of commitment and potential for continued development.

About the jurors for the NCECA 2015 Emerging Artists:

Claire Twomey, http://www.claretwomey.com, an English artist and a research fellow at the University of Westminster who works with clay in large-scale installations, Sculpture and site-specific works. Over the past 10 years she has exhibited at the Victoria and Albert Museum, Tate, Crafts Council, Museum of Modern Art Kyoto Japan, the Eden Project and the Royal Academy of Arts.

Within these works Twomey has maintained her concerns with materials, craft practice and historic and social context.

Clare Twomey’s installations have the social and historical context in which the installation is created as their point of departure. Often they only exist within these frameworks. A number of her installations disappear or perish in the course of the exhibition period as part of the work. Often the onlooker’s mode of behaviour is conceptually included in Twomey’s works. Currently Claire is installing an exhibition at Gardiner Museum in Toronto entitled Piece by piece.

Piece by Piece, an exhibit by acclaimed British ceramic artist, Clare Twomey, will open at the Gardiner Museum in Toronto on October 4, as part of Scotiabank Nuit Blanche, and runs through January 4, 2015. Commissioned by the Gardiner, Canada’s world-famous ceramics museum, as part of its Artist Intervention Series, the performative installation is a Canadian premiere for Twomey.

Piece by Piece features an army of more than 2,000 ceramic figurines – all inspired by the Gardiner’s rare Commedia dell’Arte Harlequin collection – and demonstrates the conflicting emotions of everyday life. The exhibit will also feature an on-site artist/maker creating additional statuettes to add to Twomey’s ever-gr o wing ghostly white world.

Nicholas Kripal , http://www.nicholaskripal.com, teaches at Tyler School of Art at Temple University. An aspect of his studio practice over the past several years has been an investigation of site related/site specific installations. He is interested in the history of the site, the religious rites that take place within the site, and the architectural iconography of the site. The last is of particular interest as it operates as a signifier for the other two. Unlike traditional exhibitions in white box gallery spaces, these sculptural installations involve interface with the sites congregation, and the extensive research and development for preliminary proposals that describe and negotiate the conceptual and aesthetic integration of the sculpture to the site. The research for these site related installations inevitably generates ideas that extend other aspects of his studio practice.

Jane Shellenbarger, Janeshellenbarger.com, is an instructor at Rochester institute of technology School for American Crafts. Her studio practice has focused on utilitarian objects and their ability to commemorate and document our culture.These objects provide both a utilitarian and ritualized experience. Her research focuses on objects that plumb this deep history. Utility is the nexus of the research, but most intriguing is the ability of pots to transcend themselves as objects and convey information.

The most relevant, influential and culturally potent objects fraternize with an edge, exploring the moment where an expected beauty becomes deconstructed, where familiar objects are reconsidered. The tipping point between elegance and awkwardness, questioning conventional beauty within historical forms, is where the familiar object becomes the artifact, speaking of multiple histories and the nuanced and complex relationship we have with objects in our everyday lives.

Culture accumulates in layers upon our objects of use, ritual and prosaic, my own intentions are to shed light and perhaps even give reverence to this cultural dynamic.